More than 100 airmen from the West Virginia Air National Guard's 130th Airlift Wing deployed to Southwest Asia this week in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel.
"They'll be flying missions," said Capt. Holli Nelson, chief of public affairs for the 130th Airlift Wing. "They do cargo and personnel transfers in support of the war effort. Whether that be moving large amounts of equipment or supplies from one base to another, or they do airdrops, as well."
The group left this week from McLaughlin Air National Guard Base, in Charleston.
The Air Wing's medical, operations and maintenance groups combined to form the Aerospace Expeditionary Force deployment package.
Airplane maintenance crews and medical personnel who are being deployed will attend to aircraft in the area and work in hospitals.
Some of the deploying Air Guardsmen are full-time pilots, nurses, mechanics and students.
"It works out better when they work together as a crew," Nelson said.
The airmen mostly will be working in Afghanistan but also will be working elsewhere in the region, she said. Operation Freedom's Sentinel is the name of the mission in Afghanistan, once known as Operation Enduring Freedom.
A major deployment of the 130th is not common, Nelson said.
There have been just three or four for the airlift wing since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan in 2001.
However, she said individual deployments are common.
"We've been at war for 16 years now," Nelson said. "We send people off by ones and twos really quite often. You don't hear about it as much because they're doing different missions all across the world."
Guardsmen are held to the same standards as their active-duty counterparts, according to a news release.
"The National Guard is at the service of the governor of West Virginia," Nelson said. "We're trained just like other people in the Air Force."
Members of the Air National Guard are trained in command and control, small-arms fire, shelter build-up and tear-down, resiliency training, suicide prevention, survival and search and recovery missions.
"These people bring a certain set of skills to the fight overseas," Nelson said. "They bring a different set of skills than what our active-duty counterparts might. We're just a really unique asset, not only to the state of West Virginia but to the Air Force as a whole.
"We know they are going to go overseas and do an excellent job and represent West Virginia well. We're excited for their return."
Reach Kayla Asbury at kayla.asbury@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @kasbury_ on Twitter.
